First published April 2025 | Words and photos by Vietnam Coracle
Tom Divers is the founder and creator of Vietnam Coracle. He’s lived, travelled and worked in Vietnam since 2005. Born in London, he travelled from an early age, visiting over 40 countries (he first visited Vietnam in 1999). Now, whenever he has the opportunity to make a trip, he rarely looks beyond Vietnam’s borders and his trusty motorbike, Stavros. Read more about Tom on the About Page, Vietnam Times and ASE Podcast.
A Short Film of My Local Neighbourhood to Celebrate 50 Years of Reunification
On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Saigon (also referred to as the ‘fall of Saigon’ in many English-language history books) and the subsequent renaming of the southern metropolis as ‘Ho Chi Minh City’, I’ve taken this opportunity to look back at my own 20-year relationship with the city via a short film of my former local neighbourhood. (If you enjoy my website, please support Vietnam Coracle.)
CONTENTS:
Introduction:
What is ‘My Saigon’ & Why I Made this Short Film
On 30th April, 2025, there will be parties in the streets, military displays, fireworks and fun across the city. The celebrations will commemorate 50 years since the tanks rolled over the gates of Independence Palace in 1975, effectively marking the end of the war and the reunification of the nation from south to north. For 20 of the ensuing years, I have called Saigon my home.
Having moved to Saigon in 2005, I’ve paid rent in the city ever since, using it as my home base in Vietnam, making friends and having experiences that could only have happened here. Saigon has been the backdrop for most of my adult life. During that time, I’ve lived in 8 different properties in the city. One of those homes I stayed in for 9 years, living with dozens of housemates, each of whom stayed for varying durations. That house was in a neighbourhood called Phường 25 (Ward 25), in Bình Thạnh District. A fairly typical neighbourhood between the city centre and the inner suburbs, I grew attached to my area and the rhythm of life that defined it.
In a city that’s in a constant state of flux, construction, change and redevelopment, I wanted to record my neighbourhood as it was. I filmed a day in the life of my area, shooting footage on my digital camera over the course of 24 hours and then editing it into a short 8-minute film. Although very amateur and low-tech, this film serves its purpose as a portrait and tribute to my old neighbourhood, which I left at the end of 2022, and the kind of local life that is still typical in many Saigon neighbourhoods today, though it is almost entirely absent in some of the newer residential areas of the city.
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Today, I live in a very different neighbourhood in another part of the city, one that until recently looked more like the Mekong Delta than Vietnam’s largest urban zone. Now my home is in a newly developed part of Saigon, where there are rows of high-rise apartment buildings, trees, clean streets, supermarkets, Starbucks and Pilates studios. As nice and liveable as that might be, there’s far less connection to local life, or sense of community, or simply humanity when compared to all of the other homes and areas I’ve lived in previously in Saigon. These days, when I want to spend time in a neighborhood like the one featured in my short film, I travel over one of the bridges across the Saigon River (which now essentially separates ‘new’ Saigon from ‘old’ Saigon) and drop myself deep within a district and a ward that hasn’t yet been redeveloped with malls and condos. This is where I can still find my Saigon: the Saigon I first encountered when I moved to Vietnam. Indeed, visiting a local neighborhood such as this feels like a form of time travel: going from 2025 to 2005 in the space of a 15-minute taxi ride. These two very different Saigons exist – and thrive – simultaneously.
What I wanted to capture in the video below – and, indeed, what I’ve been trying to capture in my other Saigon guides and articles (see Related Posts) for years – is just a glimmer of Saigon’s, well, Saigon-ness. What is it that makes this city attractive, appealing, liveable, unique: where does Saigon’s charm lie? Because this is not a city best experienced via its traditional ‘sights’. The best of Saigon is in the details: the micro not the macro. It’s not about the ‘must-sees’, the skyscrapers or the skyline; it’s about the insets and the minutiae; the audible and the aromatic, be they beautiful or ugly. For me, the scent of jasmine tea brewing in a late afternoon alleyway is just as emblematic of the city as the smell of sewage in the Thị Nghè Channel at low tide.
Saigon’s essential character lies in the choreography and patterns of daily life that take place in residential areas existing along small streets and down alleyways. This is where you’ll start to notice – and to love – the rhythm of local neighbourhooods and the people who inhabit them, and this is what I’ve attempted to convey in my short video: Saigon, My Saigon.
Film:
Saigon, My Saigon [8.35]
(For best viewing, select HD quality & watch at full screen)
*Disclosure: I never receive payment for anything I write: my content is always free and independent. I’ve produced this article and video because I want to: I like Saigon’s local neighbourhoods and I want my readers to know about them. For more details, see my Disclosure & Disclaimer statements and my About Page
A Super Special Film,Tom. Yes – Saigon, My Saigon !!!
Thank you, Ben.
Best,
Tom
Excellent, Tom! You captured it well.
For the total immersion experience, I recommend watching while sitting in a sauna, fully dressed.
Thanks, John. I’m glad you enjoyed it (in the sauna!) 🙂
Best,
Tom